When it comes to control in the trailers, Anderson Mobile Estates is still using AMX touch screens and is constantly updating to the most recent hardware.

As founder of Anderson Mobile Estates, Ron builds luxury trailers for movie stars, producers, directors and business executives so they don’t have to sacrifice any comforts of home when they’re working on the road.

The estates, which can span up to 360m, feature hydraulically-expanding rooms, pop-up roofs and even a rooftop deck. Of course, any celebrity wouldn’t feel at home without all of the automation technologies they’re used to, so all Anderson trailers contain AMX touch screens, controlling everything from lighting to security and AV.

Ron didn’t travel the most conventional route into his current profession; he was originally working in optometry, where he obtained patents for two contact lens cleaners that are still on the market today.

Following the success of these products, he became passionate about importing exotic cars and it is through this that he was put in contact with actor Sylvester Stallone, who challenged him to design and build a custom bus that could meet his discerning taste.

After successfully completing the project, Ron founded Star Trax Celebrity Coaches in 1987, building buses for other high profile clients, such as Jim Carrey, Brad Pitt, Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez and former US president Bill Clinton.

“I found that some movie stars had a $20 million dollar home, but were spending most of their time in a $35,000 trailer. It didn’t make sense,” he says.

“When I first started, I was buying buses from other companies, but I was fed up with the inferior quality – they were built for families to go away for a couple of months, not for an actor to live in for 300 days of a year, so I decided to build my own buses instead.

“I built my own factory and spent $US1.2 million ($A1.13 million) on my first bus, which was a lot at the time, but it contained the first AMX touch screens used in a remote application. This was in the early 1990s when nobody had even seen touch screens before, they were black and yellow electroluminescent panels as LED panels weren’t available at the time.

“One time, I was demonstrating to a rock star how to use his screen; I pressed a single button and the lights in the front lounge came on, the first set of ‘Star Trek’ air doors slid open, more lights slowly brightened and the second set of air doors revealed his bedroom in the back. He couldn’t believe his eyes.”

Ron notes that because it was such a new technology, the company had to spend around $50,000 just to program the touch screens, however he was always committed to adopting the newest technology – an ethos he still carries today.

“I have always believed in the cutting edge. I still have fax machines that I paid $4,000 dollars for when they first came out!

“I even had the first ever voice command mobile telephone, which I installed in Billy Crystal’s vehicle. He was making a movie that required him to be in the make-up chair for ten hours a day without moving, but with this phone, he could still make calls. This was in the 1980s, when this sort of technology was unheard of, so after that, everybody wanted one.”

After selling Star Trax in 1999, Ron took a year off to sail around the globe with his wife and children. Upon his return, he launched Anderson Mobile Estates to introduce his new idea: a double-storey expanding trailer with ‘yacht-like’ qualities. These are the models seen today, available in different variations, such as The Heat, The Studio, Baby Girl and The Aspen.

Ron says the company has evolved dramatically since then, but a particularly pivotal point was the introduction of LED lighting.

“We replaced the old halogen lights in our units with LEDs. In one trailer we had 105 halogen lights with a 240A converter to supply the power, after replacing the lights we only needed 14A. Also, we dramatically reduced our wiring as we used to require four wires for each light, one pair for power and one for data.

“Getting the colour right with LEDs was a problem at first, but now we’re finding that LEDs illuminate the entire area, whereas halogens just gave out spots of light and left dark areas.”

When it comes to control in the trailers, Anderson Mobile Estates is still using AMX touch screens and is constantly updating to the most recent hardware.

“AMX is releasing a new system that has a very long LED screen, which means that you can view multiple controls simultaneously, such as your lighting, control and temperature pages all at the same time. This is great for us because clients in our market don’t want to take a lot of time to learn all the functionalities, they just want it to work instantly. So as soon as it’s released we’re going to install them in the old trailers,” Ron says.

In his future designs, Ron is trying to eliminate windows as much as possible to cut down on the need for heating and air conditioning, but in some instances this is also to reinforce security.

“I recently designed a trailer for the Royal Family that had no windows whatsoever, but we installed screens on the walls that are linked to cameras on the outside, so a screen acts as a window and it looks just like you’re driving down the highway. If you don’t like what’s happening outside, you can change it to something else!

“Also, by eliminating windows and only having an escape hatch and a door, we can make the unit completely bulletproof and bombproof, and cut down on the possibility of terrorists gaining entry.”

Even though many of these trailers are capable of expanding, Ron says that space has always been one of the biggest problems for the team, so they are always trying new ways to work around the constraints.

“The lack of space is always a major challenge for us. No matter how big I make the units, there is still minimal space to put everything in and our clients don’t want to sacrifice any ‘mod-cons’, so it’s always a squeeze.

“That’s why, when we redesigned and revamped the trailer, we built it with trusses. The beauty is that we can put all of the air ducts, holding tanks and batteries in between those trusses below deck. In the past we had to put these items under couches, but now it frees that up for storage space.”

Ron says his proudest project to date is still The Heat, a double-storey trailer which was fi rst introduced to actor Will Smith.

“The Heat was definitely our best moment. It took four engineers two years of computer building before we even welded two pieces of metal together. We originally built nine of them, but we realised that they weren’t exactly what we wanted, so we stopped, took our time and rebuilt them until we were happy.”

However, Will has now switched to the same unit built for Simon Cowell – The Studio. This mobile mansion houses a recording studio, large conference rooms, an optional play area for children and even a remote control medical system.

“With our medical unit, if you’re experiencing an emergency, you push a button, a screen comes up and you’re connected to a White House physician via video chat. If you’re told to call an ambulance, in the interim you can slide a glove on, hold it over your heart and the doctor gets an EKG reading in 30 seconds,” Ron says.

“Additionally, if a mother thinks their child has an ear infection, she can put a scope in the child’s ear and the doctor has a HD picture of the internals right there. There’s also a remote control stethoscope and a blood testing machine – you prick your fi nger, place it on the system and in three minutes the doctor has an analysis of your blood.”

It is aspects such as this that illustrate that although Anderson Mobile Estates carries a ritzy, luxurious façade, there are still some very serious motives behind what the team is doing. Supporting this, Ron says he also has ambitions to use his expertise to aid disaster areas and help those who are less fortunate.

“I have developed some mobile, low income housing which will be made affordable by not including any mechanism for expansion. The units fl oat in case of emergency and are earthquake proof. They are also powered by solar, wind and hydrogen and can be used ‘off the grid’ in most parts of the country.

“I also really want to build a disaster home that can be taken to tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. I could get so many doctors to volunteer their time if they could sit by their pool and do their job with a laptop! I’m just trying to secure some funding to make it happen.”

With all the success Ron has had in his career, he admits that he still finds it hard to be fully happy with the finished product. It is this constant strive for perfection and desire to better his previous job that has kept his clients coming back time and again.

“With every project I do, I never really feel like I completely cracked it, because every time I get close, I always seem to move my goals that little bit more,” he says.